The Badaling section of the Great Wall of China is framed by the Olympic Rings on the outskirts of Beijing, China, on Feb. 8, 2022. China has thousands of years of doing things in a really big way, reinforcing its perceived place in the world and the political power of its leaders — from emperors to Mao Zedong to Xi Jinping. None of this bigness is new. It goes back to a dozen dynasties that ruled China for thousands of years, a tradition of projecting power that was adopted by the Chinese Communist Party when it came to power in 1949. It could be termed simply: big, bigger and biggest — and then some. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
